The world’s richest nation grows more food than its citizens can consume, but now struggles to get all that food through the vital supply lines leading to their tables.  

Instead, the unprocessed food is being dumped, smashed, depopulated or “humanely euthanized” in quantities not seen since the Great Depression. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has sent the country spiraling down to a new normal. Many states are under stay-at-home orders and most businesses are on lockdown. The resulting mass unemployment and growing food insecurity, highlight the dependence on a fragile, if efficient, food supply system. 

This supply chain was designed largely using the precise just-in-time management system, which focuses on moving supplies only as needed, with minimal storage and reduced costs as its benefits. 

But the pandemic has exposed flaws in this system. It is no longer working smoothly.

“The food supply chain is breaking,” Tyson Foods chairman, John Tyson, said in a recent blog post regarding the operational challenges large food providers were having. 

Staff shortages from sickened workers have compounded the initial problem of the sudden drop in commercial demand for fresh vegetables, meat and dairy from large farms. 

Restaurants, hotels and schools were some of their biggest customers, and with their closing, there were no quick pivots to process massive amounts of food into smaller, consumer-ready packaging.

These mega farms are operating at a loss, as they are forced to continue destroying livestock and crops they cannot sell. 

Many grocers scramble to keep their store shelves stocked to meet increased demand from shoppers stuck at home.  And many newly jobless Americans are lining up, often for hours at a time, at food banks.

This unforeseen food waste catastrophe could have possibly been mitigated with a more decentralized food supply system.  A vast local network of farms, scattered across the country, could better handle individual crises than the limited group of farming monopolies that now exist.

Over the last 30 years, more and more farms and meat processing plants were consolidated. Currently, about 50 factories process more than 95 percent of the nation’s beef supply. 

The raw milk industry is dominated by several large companies, who distribute their supply on a regimented distribution system that cracked under speed and scope of the pandemic. 

The glaring contrast of food waste and want has caught the nation’s attention. 

In response, President Donald Trump recently announced a  $19 billion relief package to shore up farmers and purchase their excess products.  

Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, said President Trump and the US Department of Agriculture were “standing with farmers, ranchers, and all citizens to make sure they were taken care of.” 

Up to $3 billion of the relief package was allotted to purchase fruits, vegetables, dairy and meats to be distributed to food banks and other community organizations nationwide.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, speaking at a press conference, also addressed the disconnect between food on farms that were not getting to the people who needed help most.

“This is just a total waste to me,” Cuomo said. “We have people downstate who need food and farmers upstate who can’t sell their product.”

The governor’s solution is to create a $25 million Nourish New York initiative where food banks throughout the state purchase food from upstate farmers and redistribute it to locations with need.

In East Elmhurst, Queens, one of the New York neighborhoods hardest hit by the pandemic, the first van loads of produce arrived on Friday, producing much needed relief to those waiting in line.

Speaking to Eyewitness News at the food distribution site, State Senator Jessica Ramos said many of her constituents were immigrants and “they are running out of cash, they don’t have money for rent, they don’t have money for food.”

The distributions will continue every Friday and Saturday at 11 a.m. as long as needed.

Meanwhile, some farms and related co-ops are donating food directly to food banks to help stem the amount of food being discarded.

The Dairy Farmers of America co-op has sent over a quarter million gallons of milk that would have otherwise been dumped to food banks.

“It’s just a drop in the bucket,” one senior executive, Jackie Klippenstein, said in a recent New York Times article regarding the donation. “But we had to do something.”

The post Farmers destroy staggering amounts of food even as food lines grow appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Later speaking at a podium in the Rose Garden, surrounded by large screens on either side with the words “Opening up America Again”, President Trump, along with a panel of business leaders and health experts, detailed the procedures being put in place for a “rapid, but safe” reopening of businesses throughout the nation. 

“We want to get our country open,” Trump said, emphasizing that people want to get back to work, and very soon. “There’s a hunger for getting our country back and it’s happening, and it’s happening faster than people would think.”

Trump’s most recent task force meeting was on Friday afternoon where his comments about the possibility of using ultraviolet lights and some sort of disinfectant that “knocks out [the virus] in a minute” created a furor, and much ridicule, prompting him to tweet on Saturday that he did not think the news conferences were still worth “his time and effort.”

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence expressed optimism that they now had enough testing capacity – due to the public-private partnership of health corporations – to gradually start opening different sections of the country based on infection rates and White House phasing guidelines .

“We are confident we have enough testing to begin reopening. We want to get our country open and testing will not be a problem at all,” Trump said. “Ensuring the health of our economy is vital to ensuring the health of our nation..these goals work in tandem, the work side by side.”

Pence said that 200,000 test results were achieved on Saturday alone with over 5.4 million total completed, more than any other nation in the world.

Nationwide however, many states still struggle with testing capacity, even as governors debate reopening many businesses and schools as infection rates dips and residents are increasingly restless, many demanding to be freed from the crushing long weeks of lockdown.

In New York, 337 people died on Monday from the Covid-19 disease. With over 292,000 reported cases of infection and 17,303 deaths, New York still has the highest rates of infection in the country. Nationwide, there are 977,256 cases with over 50,000 reported deaths and the worldwide toll reaching 3 million people infected with over 202,000 fatalities

While the 337 deaths in New York was the lowest number since March 30, Governor Andrew Cuomo said the number was still “tragically high” and does not “give any solace to 337 families that are suffering today.” 

The post Trump is back at the podium appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Already living in communities disproportionately burdened by chronic poverty, high rates of underlying medical conditions, coupled with poor access to quality healthcare, the coronavirus crisis now suddenly adds a whole new layer of suffering to the black US population.

All across the country – in the dense urban areas of Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, New York – emerging data show an alarming trend: Blacks are dying at rates of up to 3,4, 5 or 6 times that of other races.

Black people are not inherently susceptible to the Covid-19 disease itself.  Systemic inequalities resulting from ongoing racism are the true culprits here. Living in a society where the status quo has relegated generations of blacks to substandard housing, especially in large metro areas – cramped, poorly maintained, children growing up with asthma – and neighborhoods devoid of healthy choices in food and education, create the perfect storm of vulnerable: unhealthy, underemployed and disconnected from mainstream advantages. This is where the coronavirus has landed.

President Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force are taking notice.

“Why is it three or four times more so for the black community as opposed to other people?” Trump asked at a recent White House briefing. 

The incoming data showing the virus’ especially devastating impact on black communities was “troublesome”, President Trump said, and “doesn’t make sense”. He said the task force is studying the data further to come up with appropriate recommendations.

A person walks along a virtually empty 2nd ave in the East Village. Photo by Thomas Hengge

The preliminary findings seem to make more sense to the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, however.

“Health disparities have always existed for the African American community,” Fauci said, speaking at a White House press briefing. “With the crisis, it’s shining a bright light on how unacceptable that is. They are suffering disproportionately.”

The coronavirus disease, Covid-19, attacks the upper respiratory tract of potential hosts, causing only mild flu-like symptoms in most individuals, but often proving deadly to the elderly and those with underlying, chronic health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disease. 

A large number of African Americans fall into the latter group. The death rates keep outpacing the rest of the population.

“It’s not that [blacks] are getting infected more often,” Dr. Fauci said. “It’s that when they do get infected, their underlying medical conditions – the diabetes, the hypertension, the obesity, the asthma – those are the kind of things that wind them up in the ICU and ultimately give them a higher death rate.”

As of  today, the world-wide pandemic has infected over 1.9 million people, with close to 120,000 lives lost. Within the US, the number of positive cases was at 587,357, with the virus  snatching over 23,649 lives on its relentless, destructive path. 

In New York, the state currently with the highest number of confirmed infections of 195,031, the death toll stands at 10,056 victims.

The New York Department of Health on Wednesday released its first breakdown of fatalities of the disease based on race and ethnicity. The data shows blacks and Hispanics dying at the highest rates. 

People wait on line for Whole Foods, April 4, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, along with Brooklyn’s Borough President Eric Adams, have joined the chorus of voices demanding more stringent study of the virus’ impact on communities of color and immediate remedies to mitigate the disproportionate trajectory.

Echoing the observation that untreated chronic health problems predisposes communities of color to suffer more fatalities from the virus than other ethnicities, governor Cuomo added that this population was also dominated by people who work on the front lines who are unable to work from home. 

They don’t have a choice but “to go out there everyday and drive the bus and drive the train and show up for work and wind up subjecting themselves to, in this case, the virus,” Cuomo said. 

While the governor has ordered more testing to immediately take place in black and Hispanic communities to identify, and attempt to slow the spread of the virus, transit workers in New York are dying and being sickened at escalating rates.

A worker waits for the downtown 6 train at 14th Street Union Square. Photo by Thomas Hengge

To date, 50 Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) workers – mostly subway workers – have died from coronavirus. Throughout the MTA system – NYC subway and bus transit system with its large minority workforce, Metro North and the Long Island Railroad – about 1900 more workers have tested positive with 5,200 in quarantine. 

“Racial disparity has never been more evident,” says Eric Adams. “The subways are filled with black and brown people” going to “essential jobs” in transportation, food service, hospitality and retail. Many without the necessary protective equipment to work safely or financial means to stop working and shelter-at-home.

Speaking at a recent press conference, Mayor de Blasio said the economic and health disparity in poorer communities of color was nothing new. 

“The disparities that have plagued this city, this nation, that are all about fundamental inequality, are once again causing such pain, and causing innocent people to lose their lives,” he said. “It’s sick. It’s troubling. It’s wrong. And we’re going to fight back with everything we got [to right the inequities].”

In Louisiana, governor John Bel Edwards, said the data coming in shows that 70 percent of the deaths statewide were of African Americans who were only 32 percent of the population.

CNN commentator Van Jones commented on the New Orleans rapid spread and the role early misinformation and inconsistent official information played to further compounded the Covid-19 challenges in black neighborhoods.

“We got off on the wrong foot here,” Jones said. “From a media point of view, and from a community point of view. Everybody started saying, in the black community, ‘this is a white folks’ thing. In fact, a rumor got started that black people were literally immune to this disease. That was all over the Internet – started off as a joke – people took it seriously.”

Jones appealed to the black community and anyone who had friends and family who were not properly informed, to recognize the seriousness of the crisis and to follow the social-distancing guidelines and other mandates from local and federal governments. 

People wait on line to enter the Dollar Tree in Harlem, April 4, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

Producer, writer and actor, Tyler Perry, speaking at a recent CBS interview, also spoke of early disinformation circulating online that the disease was not an issue black people should be concerned about. 

Perry said he saw “too many things online saying, ‘oh, we don’t get this,’ or ‘Black people don’t travel abroad, so it’s not going to come to our community’.” But “that is a ridiculous thought,” he said. “It is coming to-it has come to our community, and it’s devastating us in disproportionate numbers.”

In Chicago and Detroit, now seeing rapid spikes  in coronavirus infections, the trend continues: blacks being the minority in the state, but the cities grappling with their skyrocketing, death tolls that could rise as high as 8 times that of the other residents.

African Americans make up about 14 percent of Michigan’s population, one third of its confirmed cases and 40 percent of its deaths. The city of Detroit makes up 75 percent of coronavirus deaths.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said statistics showing blacks in Chicago dying at almost 6 times the rate of other racial groups just “takes your breath away”.

Lightfoot said the numbers were the most “shocking things” she has seen as a mayor. 

Dr. Fauci said “when this is over, there will still be health disparities” that “really need to be addressed in the African American community.”

The post Black Americans are Dying at Disproportionately High Rates in the Coronavirus Outbreak appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

While the number of daily infections and deaths were still high, with the death toll rising to 4,758 from 4,159 the previous day, Cuomo said the actual increase appeared to have “flattened” over the last two days.

“The possible flattening of the curve is better than the increases we have seen [previously],” he said. “Hospitalizations are down, the ICU admissions are down, and daily intubations are down.”

Cuomo said those were “all good signs” and that if in fact the state had reached its peak in the number of new infections, it still remains to be seen how the projected model would play out.

“The big question we are looking at now is what type of curve,” or apex, the state had attained, he said, explaining that the ideal would be a sharp peak with instant decline versus a curve or extended plateau type of a graph. 

He said they would continue to study the projections by following the data over the next few days to determine more accurately what was happening across the state.

Cuomo cautioned that even though the data was “hopeful” it was inconclusive and success in defeating the virus was contingent upon continued social distancing and other mitigation practices. He said that even if New York was indeed at a plateau, it was a high one and a strain for medical staffing to maintain.

“We are plateauing at a very high level which is a tremendous stress on our healthcare system,” he said.  The system “ is already at maximum capacity today, and staying at that level would crash the system.”

He voiced repeated concern about the mental and physical wear the crisis was having on healthcare workers and first responders.

“We are at a red line,” he said. “People can’t work any harder, and staying at this level is problematic,” he said.

To relieve pressure on the hospital system, the state has increased sharing of ventilators and personal protective  equipment from less affected areas to communities that need them most. 

The 2500-bed Javits Center, initially converted to an emergency hospital for non-Covid persons, has now been opened up to Covid patients which is a major “relief valve” for the overburdened New York system. 

Additionally, at Cuomo’s request, President Donald Trump has approved the Navy ship, USNS Comfort, to also be opened up to accept coronavirus patients from New York and New Jersey. The 1000-bed floating hospital has only about 20 patients because of federal red tape but is needed more  as a hospital for coronavirus patients. 

The governor said New York on PAUSE  will continue until April 29 to ensure that the progress made in containing the virus is maintained.

In response to reports that many New Yorkers were not practicing social distancing outdoors as mandated, Cuomo said he has authorized the increase in fine from $500 to $1000 for those found violating the rules.

“This is an enemy we have underestimated since day one,” he said. “We have paid the price dearly.”

Worldwide the highly contagious coronavirus has infected more than 1.3 million people with close to 74,000 deaths. In the US alone, there are 363, 820 positive cases resulting in 10, 768 deaths. New York state continues to be the epicenter of the outbreak with 122,000 confirmed cases.

“The challenge is to make sure we don’t lose anyone who could’ve been saved,” he said.

In Washington, at the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing, Trump said over 1 million tests have been administered so far including newly developed kits that could deliver results in as little as 5 minutes with an average time of 15 minutes. He said that general testings have become widely available throughout the country.

But recent reports show that some hospitals and medical centers still struggle with adequate testing supplies and facilities.

The post New York May Have Reached its Apex in the Coronavirus Outbreak appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

 I have been home for a week. Except that one day I went out to do a story about my neighborhood.

Today is Wednesday.

There is a church bell that tolls on the hour. It’s somewhere in the back past the tree. I never heard it before. I’ve never seen the church. I will search for it one day.

Governor Cuomo says I should stay inside. I better do it. I don’t want to get sick. Now I’m thinking if I go out the front door there is a mass of virus-laden air just waiting to descend on me and infect my lungs. But I have to put out the garbage today. Or maybe tomorrow. They pick up early Friday morning.

If I go out the back though, where the tree is, if I go out the back door and look up, I am safe. No virus can get me there. It wouldn’t dare. The tree is there. Strong, unwavering, tall – super tall. Fearless. I could hide behind it if necessary.

The tree is my new lighthouse. If I can see it, I will make it through this coronavirus sea that just popped up out of nowhere. Who dropped a whole globe in a merciless, malevolent sea? Why? What did we do?

We are fighting to get out – reaching for light, gasping for air – striving upward so we are not consumed.

My new routine includes waking up. The virus did not get me overnight. Whew. I go straight to the back door, open and look to the right. The tree is still there. Nonchalant. Unworried. Makes me feel silly sometimes. Everything is quiet. Normal. I turn on 1010 WINS. 22 minutes is not enough, I leave them on. Then I go online to the New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and every other major news outlet.

Numbers, statistics, maps. Opinions, predictions (Mayor de Blasio predicts a lot). President Trump, VP Pence. Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx. Briefings. More media. Then I have to stop.

Coronavirus has upended my world. Upended the globe. Hijacked us. The creepy up-close images of the coronavirus showing the “crown-like spikes” induce nightmares. I wish they would stop showing them.

It’s no longer Wednesday.

The days are starting to blur. I did put out the garbage yesterday. And again today. Today I went out to meet the guy delivering the wine I ordered. Never did that before. I don’t even drink much. Just social occasions, but those are gone so, maybe an occasional glass will help me concentrate better. I’ll see.

I checked on the tree today. Several times. Just checking. It looked fine, the upright sentinel. Unconcerned about me and my fluctuating human emotions. Dismissive of my attachments to it.  But I don’t care. I’m going to keep checking till this diseased sea lets go of us and kicks us off on a beach somewhere, then recede, off to mutate underground and return in years, decades or even a century. We will be ready for its descendant then. Immuned and vaccined we will be – impenetrable victors. We have to be.

We saw it coming, it seemed far away, manageable. We continued our lives, living, laughing, loving, then looked up. The nightmarish microscopic invaders had already lodged in our upper respiratory tract, spreading out, latching on hosts, determined to cause historic mayhem.

Just three weeks ago, during the first week in March (this month is long), my grad school class was at McSorley’s Ale House bringing to life, so to speak, Joseph Mitchell’s “The Old House at Home” reading. It was a fun, bustling, history-filled evening, with virus and restrictions far from our minds.

Last year I finally decided what I wanted to be when I grow up. I started out wanting to be a journalist when I was really young but got busy and forgot all about it. Now I’m sure. Also a fiction writer, designer, playwright, investor and so on, but mostly a journalist as a day job.

So after years of working in almost every industry in New York, and leaving each job for one reason or another, I applied to journalism school and now I’m in grad school in Manhattan with students who absorb tech while I still have to learn it cerebrally.

They are wonderful and helpful classmates though, who don’t mind answering all my questions; encourage it even. The school tells me I am now a multimedia journalist. Of course.

I live in Brooklyn.

I can’t shake the feeling that this coronavirus snuck up on us. How could it happen so quickly?

Right after the ale house outing, I was at Prospect Park the following week. A sunny, beautiful day with families and volleyball and sunbathing and biking and the farmer’s market at Grand Army Plaza open early because it was such perfect spring weather. The Botanical Garden was wide open with one tree in full pink glory, waiting for the others to catch up. It closed the following day.

Yes, sure people were starting to wear masks since February or so and we were keeping our distance from each other on the subway. Then schools, including my school, started closing in earnest during the second week of March. But it was all supposed to be toward an “abundance of caution” for two weeks or so. Being prudent while the city, state decision-makers and experts meet to confer and tell us how to proceed going forward.

Then everything stopped.

I’m stopping now for a moment too. I get anxious if I don’t check in on what’s going on after an hour or so. I get anxious if I stay on for more than an hour. I need to know. Yet I need to pull back.

President Trump and Gov. Cuomo are disagreeing about something again. What is the best way to fix this thing that seeks to destroy us collectively. Who has the answer. Scientists and innovators are working hard to race ahead of its onslaught and halt it in its tracks.

The growing grief I feel is profound sometimes. It goes in and out and stymies productivity for hours on end. Increasing alarm that what initially seemed like a badly written novel is now real and deadly. Lives being lost on the hour. Many others stuck on ventilators. Doctors and nurses and EMS workers describing war zone-like conditions.

What happened. What and how. I get dazed sometimes. Then I can’t focus. I listen to soothing music and pray for a miracle. Or several. I believe it will come. We are all working so hard to conquer this thing, it just has to.

On Thursday we had an 8-hour class on Zoom. It’s a class that simulates a full newsroom workday with anchors, reporters, producers, sound and tech people and camera crew. Wasn’t sure how we were going to pull it off remotely but somehow the professors managed to guide us through an adapted version, and we were able to have a remote newscast at the end.

I got to be an anchor once. It was fun. Mostly though, I’m on camera 2. I mastered that. Someday I will be ready to be a producer. I’m working my way up.

It was sunny, so for the first few hours of the class I was able to sit in the back with the tree to my right (it’s an evergreen) and two smaller, still mostly bare ones to the left. It was a little distracting as I tried to photograph a moving squirrel, then a cute bird, but didn’t get any good pics. I moved back indoors for the second half; it was getting chilly anyway.

It’s nice seeing my classmates again. I miss them. The first class on Monday was hard. We connected and had class as usual – as much as possible – then class ended, and the screen went blank. I stared and stared at the screen. No after class chatter, no bumping into someone from my other class and brainstorming stories.  No hi to professors or staff or any person. No person.

But I adjust. Continue to stay in touch by text and phone and sometimes email. Maybe Instagram. I don’t really get into all the other apps my classmates are into. Just so many apps for everything.

And I don’t miss the subway. I already only used it when I had to over the last few years. I am moving things around to set up a real home office that should help me be more productive. I even talked about learning how to make bread and cook fancy dishes, but I know it’s not going to happen. I make quick, light dishes when I get hungry then run away from the kitchen. Always been that way. I did buy instant coffee though. Trying to replicate that cup of coffee I get on my way to class. It’s something, it’s comforting.

I know it’s hard for the essential workers who get up and go out everyday and put themselves at risk just by the nature of their jobs. I am not complaining. I am bewildered. Like everyone else, I believe. We read about 1918. We read about other pandemics. I remember SARS and a bunch of other flu-like contagions. I remember the stunned trauma of 911: the sinking acceptance of what had happened, the long aftermath of cleanup and physical recovery, mourning the loss of lives, loss of innocence. Healing, moving on.

Now this. COVID-19 is such a dignified, official sounding name. Sterile, scientific, seeming removed from the actual grimy, insidious trail of this novel coronavirus.

But human beings win. We were designed to do so. Watch us focus our concerted best, most brilliant, heroic and compassionate selves on defeating a common enemy. Sooner than later, we will get our lives back.

The post The tree of solace appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

“We have to go back to work. Our people want to go back to work,” Trump said during a Fox News coronavirus virtual town hall in the Rose Garden today. 

Despite medical experts stating that this could further spread the virus, Trump believes his timeline would work. 

“I think it’s possible, why isn’t it? I mean, we’ve never closed the country before and we’ve had some pretty bad [flus] and we’ve had some pretty bad viruses,” he said.

Trump said it would be possible to reopen the country this quickly if all the current precautions of social-distancing, handwashing and limited work interactions continued to be practiced once most people head back to work.

Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence and two other  members of the coronavirus taskforce, Dr. Deborah Birx and Surgeon General Jerome Adams in what has become a daily address to the nation regarding the Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has sickened over 399,500 people in 166 countries with 17,902 reported fatalities. 

Some medical experts and high ranking republicans were quick to voice their disagreement to allowing millions of people to return to the workforce in two weeks while the pace of infection was rapidly increasing nationwide.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, offered caution in reaching for a fixed time to loosen restrictions regarding social-distancing.

 “You can look at a date but you’ve got to be very flexible .. and evaluate the feasibility of what you’re trying to do,’ he said  during today’s press briefing. 

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming,  a House Republican leader,  warned that trying to jumpstart the economy again too soon could prove disastrous, overwhelming an already stretched healthcare system with overcrowding at hospitals and overworked healthcare workers.

There will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of Americans of all ages, including our doctors and nurses, lay dying because we have failed to do what’s necessary to stop the virus. https://t.co/AchwfXtuLi

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) March 24, 2020

Meanwhile in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed his frustration with the Trump administration for sending only 400 ventilators to New York, the current epicenter of the disease, when the state needs thousands right away. Dr. Birx confirmed that 60 percent of all new cases were now originating in New York City  and recommends anyone who has visited the metro area recently to immediately self-quarantine for 14 days. 

The US currently has almost 50,000 people who have tested positive for the disease with half of that amount in New York State alone. Nationwide, 615 deaths have resulted from the respiratory complications caused  by the virus.

Medical personnel, delivery persons and food suppliers are the only ones encouraged to go to work. While many people have lost or are about to lose their jobs, health experts say this ongoing limited interaction is the only way to “flatten the curve”  of the disease so  not to overwhelm healthcare resources.

But President Trump thinks the country can do both – get back to work and flatten the curve by practicing the White House-issued 15-day guidelines to slow the spread of the disease which include aggressive hand washing and not shaking hands.

Mike Pence said at no point did  the task force consider a nationwide lockdown or a federal stay-at-home order as is currently being enforced by governors. President Trump agreed that a prolonged lockdown is not economically viable, that the “country is not built to be shut down” and “many, many people” agree with him to restart the economy back up as soon as possible.

When asked about the risk of reopening the economy so soon and the potential harm people may suffer as a result, Trump alluded to potential suicide rates climbing if he doesn’t do so.

“Many more people will die if we allow this to continue,” he said. “If we delay this thing out, you’re going to lose more people than you’re losing with the situation as you know it [now].”

The post Trump wants to reopen country in a few weeks appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Cars zoomed by on the main streets of Remsen and Seaview Avenues by Canarsie Park while runners, dog-walkers and adults with biking/scooting children navigated the 132-acre green space.  A sunny but chilly day saw a light yet steady flow of casual walkers and couples entering and exiting the park’s many entrances, while over by a playground near 80th Street, a lone person jumped rope furiously – following a complex pattern of moves fit for a competition, or bypassers’ entertainment.

There was one person wearing a mask. A quick, sobering reminder that even this scenic, tree-lined suburb was not exempt from the pandemic that the coronavirus had unleashed on the world.

The quiet hush of Canarsie – everyone indoors, in their backyards/park or heading to their cars or bus – is the norm for those who live here. Gov. Cuomo’s recent Executive Order for New York State to PAUSE  (Policy that Assures Uniform Safety for Everyone) may already be in effect here, but life goes on. 

New York City has become the epicenter of the ever-rippling spread of the virus as the numbers of infected persons jump with alarming consistency as testing for the disease increases. New York State now has almost 17,000 confirmed cases with close to 11,000 of those in New York City alone.

At its core, the PAUSE directive requires that all non-essential businesses must close as of today, Sunday, March 22 at 8 p.m, until further notice. Essential businesses include grocery stores, health and delivery services and gas stations. Social gatherings of any size are canceled or postponed.

One key provision of the mandate is to protect the vulnerable elderly population under the newly formed “Matilda’s Law” where  those 70 years or older are encouraged to take extra precautions in their day to day activities. The younger population is encouraged to stay away unless their presence is necessary to provide needed care.

Social-distancing, work-from-home, remote-classes, online-learning and essential food-delivery  have become the daily hyphenated words of use in just a brief two weeks since the virus threatened to upend New Yorkers’ lifestyles and livelihoods. 

Over by the Canarsie Pier, a popular recreation area for cyclists and those who like to fish, small groups and individual riders rushed by, mask-free, not yet ready to give up their active lifestyles. The parking lot was closed, however, and rows of cars were seen lining the entrance to the pier with one couple seated on a bench overlooking the bay.

Cyclists ride past Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn. Photo by Karen Camela Watson

On entering the strip mall a block away from the water at Rockaway Pkwy, more signs of vigilance was evident as several people were seen wearing masks as they hurried in and out of restaurants to their cars. One shuttered restaurant had a small sign saying they were temporarily closed to keep themselves and their customers safe.

A restaurant on Rockaway Blvd in Canarsie is closed due to COVID-19. Photo by Karen Camela Watson

Several stores away, seeming oblivious to the social-distance mandate from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a small group of mostly  men were seen gathered outside a Key Food supermarket – only one person wearing a mask – chatting and greeting customers as they entered or left the store with groceries. 

It remains to be seen how this week and the remaining weeks, or months, of adjusted lifestyle changes will affect this already quiet and unassuming community. Both New York and the rest of the country continue to embark on the experiment of the century: to save our lives – and economy – quickly.

The post Life in Canarsie on PAUSE appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

New York blinked and an enchanted pop-up city appeared in a forgotten part of town. 

Complete with cloud-reaching steel and glass high-tech towers, fashionable, smiling people and its very own landmark – a curious burnt-bronze colored, climbable structure called The Vessel – Hudson Yards brims with promise of a glimmering and futuristic way of living.

Its website touts itself as exactly that: “Hudson Yards has become the cultural center of Manhattan’s New West Side…a template for the future of cities..” 

Now the first Christmas season has arrived with its dazzling light shows and invitation to “Shine On at Hudson Yards.”

Broadway actress, Taylor Symone Jackson, 26, was visiting the mall for the first time in December. 

Broadway actress Taylor Symone Jackson hold the playbill for her latest production Ain’t too Proud while visiting Hudson Yards Photo by Karen Carmela Watson

“It’s great, I love it,” she said. “It’s new and beautiful..I love the glass [large windows]. And I love that they have Shake Shack right around the corner [on the 4th floor]. Muji is one of my favorite stores, and then right across the way is Uniqlo. I have never seen a Uniqlo store, I love it. It’s affordable..majority of it is.” 

Perched on a four-block area from 30th to 34th Streets and 10th Avenue in Manhattan’s newly re-zoned and rapidly developing west side, the neighborhood commands a clear view of the Hudson River and the southern tip of the borough. 

Through some architectural wonder, this whole compact, residential and commercial development, sits atop platforms built over an active storage train yard, located in a once neglected and underdeveloped section of New York. 

Unlike Jackson, however, not everyone has a glowing view of this new multi-billion project.

“Hudson Yards is Manhattan’s biggest, newest, slickest, gated community,” one New York Times headline declared when the neighborhood opened in March. 

Another claimed that its many high-end stores and luxury condominiums would exclude many from becoming a part of the community.

Some architects and economists said the building designs were uninspired, that New Yorkers would not travel across town to shop in a fancy, upscale mall with mostly designer brands and celebrity-chef restaurants.

But the numbers say otherwise.

Eight months into its grand opening, New Yorkers and tourists alike have poured into Hudson Yards in numbers that exceed the expectations of supporters and critics alike.

According to a recent CNBC article, the mall expects to welcome over 20 million visitors by the end of its first year, with about half of their business being generated from Manhattan shoppers alone. 

On the first floor at the Shops and Restaurant at Hudson Yards,  Rolex employee, Stephen Michael Gardner, 61, said the store was really busy, with sometimes up to 400 shoppers a day. 

“I have been working here since August,” he said. “I love it here, it’s a wonderful place to be in, the people are nice. It’s busier than usual for the holidays, believe me, there’s lots of people in and out of the store.”

 With the Christmas season in full flow, the signs and sounds of the holiday are everywhere.

On entering the 28-acre space, especially after 5 p.m. when the light show goes on,  one is greeted by loud holiday music, small trees draped in red and purple lights scattered around the courtyard, a glimpse of a quilted-looking, glowing structure in the background called The Shed, and the public square’s centerpiece: the Vessel. The shiny, other-wordly, artistic creation, rising 16-stories-high, surrounded by tall, glowing buildings and tourists turning in circles with phones held high, trying to capture the tips of the towers.

Immediately next to the busy stair-climbing, selfie-occupied Vessel is a huge, star-shaped, overhead holiday installation sparkling with 12,000 LED lights, taking its cue and theme from the constellation Lyra after which it was named. 

The lyra changes colors and patterns continuously as holiday and classical music pour out and draw people in to look up at the dramatic display, exclaim, point, spin in circles to the music and patterns, while taking more pictures. In the cold.

Adrian Ramos is a greeter at Hudson Yards. Photo by Karen Carmela Watson

At the entrance to the The Shops, standing under two indoor lyras doing their dazzling,  holiday routine, a smiling greeter, Adrian Ramos, welcomed visitors.

“There are a lot of tourists coming in,” he said. “A lot more have been coming since the holidays..it gets hectic, a little bit crazy.”

While some critics would probably cringe on hearing “affordable and Hudson Yards” mentioned in the same sentence as Jackson did, an exploration of the shops –  many with large holiday discounts advertised – and restaurants does show a mixed-priced range of shopping and dining experiences. 

On the third floor, H&M was doing brisk business for the holiday, while across the hall, Zara had a line of customers waiting to check-out their items. Madewell, on the second floor, had holiday discounts on many clothing items. 

Neiman Marcus with its elaborate, interactive Christmas window and entrance display, along with an in-house DJ entertaining shoppers, had a mix of expected high-end items but also some small gift items priced under $50.

“I never even heard of Dior before I came here,” Ramos, 21, a Bronx resident said, turning to the store. “I did feel that everything was out of range at first but there is something for everyone.”

In addition to the decorations in most of the 100 storefronts, the ever present sound of Christmas carols follow shoppers from the courtyard throughout the seven floors of the shopping complex.

Walking in the hallway just outside Zara, Liana Kardaras, 18, was visiting with her friends from New Jersey.  She said she was not focused on the decorations.

“I haven’t actually paid much attention to the Christmas decorations,” she said. “It’s more so the Christmas music in here that I enjoy.”

Every Tuesday and Saturday until January 5, the area in front of Dior on the main floor, and other designated areas on the upper floors, become the venue of extravagant holiday activities in celebration of the neighborhood’s first Christmas.

All open to the public, performances have so far included the Elan Artists’ dancers doing their toy soldiers routine, The Brooklyn Ballet, The New York City Gospel Choir and several ensembles playing classical and holiday music on various instruments.

Toy Soldiers Dance at Hudson Yards from Pavement Pieces on Vimeo.

For families with children, cookie decorating, an upcoming breakfast with Santa event and interactive wall art keep them intrigued.

William Chan, 40, visiting with his family from Toronto, Canada, sat on the floor next to his sister and another family member as his children “draw” on an interactive wall exhibit called Off the Wall.

“We checked out the Vessel which was pretty cool and it was right around when it was getting dark so we got some good lights as well,” he said. “Now we are just walking around and the kids seem to like this wall of sequins where they could draw.”

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The city beckons to anyone with a dream.

The magnetic pull that is New York City draws the artist, the entrepreneur, wanderer and scholar in seeming equal parts. The city is expensive everyone says, nothing is affordable. In a collective shrug they still come, determined to find a way to pay.

Singer and songwriter, Chris Walton, found a way. In his late thirties, the former New Jersey resident now shares a Crown Heights, Brooklyn apartment with two roommates he met through a Facebook apartment-search group.

“I always wanted to move to New York but kept putting it off because I didn’t know what it would be like,” he said. “I thought I would never be able to afford it.”

But afford it he did, joining a steadily growing number of adults who have turned to sharing their living space with someone they are not related to or in a relationship with in order to make the city of $3000 one-bedrooms and $2000 studios more affordable.

According to the latest census numbers, an estimated 81,000 adults or 3 percent of Brooklyn’s 2.6 million residents either share with a roommate or board in someone’s home. That number jumps to 6 percent in Manhattan where over 103,000 adult residents of the 1.6 million population share their space with a non-relative.

Queens, the second most populous borough of 2.3 million residents, shows an estimated 50,000 adults sharing living space followed by the Bronx of 1.4 million with about 14,000 sharing. Staten Island has a population of just under 500,000 with an estimated 1200 adults sharing.

The national average of 1.9 percent of home-sharing adults contrasts sharply with Manhattan at three times that number. Across the bridge in Brooklyn, developers, landlords and almost anyone with a spare room to rent scramble to house the influx of newly employed or recently relocated adults in search of housing and their New York experience.

While these numbers are conservative with real estate groups placing the total number of adults sharing with roommates closer to over 30 percent of the city’s renting population, the overall consensus is that the trend is growing rapidly with little end in sight.

Real estate sales associate, Louise Beasley of Warren Lewis Sotheby’s International Realty in Brooklyn said she knows of the intense demand for affordable living space that has swept Brooklyn in recent years.

“Bushwick, Brownsville – some parts now marketed as Ocean Hill.., Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights are where the roommates are,” she said.

Beasley’s office serves the high-rental Sunset Park neighborhood and pricier Park Slope area where the cost of apartments are more comparable to Manhattan’s higher rates.

“What we have here are mostly buyers who look for tenants and occasionally older owners or renters who look for roomers because of loneliness,” she said.

The trend of older renters or homeowners sharing their homes with younger adults has caught on over the years through programs like short-term Airbnb rentals and longer term housing arrangements through organizations such as the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens’ Home Sharing Program.

Under the Senior Citizen’s program, both host and applicant undergo detailed background checks and complete compatibility surveys and in-person meetings to ensure the best possible match. The home sharing program is seen as a good option for apartment-seekers and owners looking for reduced rent and/or companionship in a relatively safe environment.

And safety is a big concern in a crowded, glittering city like New York. As gentrification transforms large swaths of formerly high-crime or long-abandoned neighborhoods, some real estate impersonators are either swindling newcomers online or renting apartments in neighborhoods that still have a long way to go to be deemed safe.

Walton spoke about the many scam sites he encountered online while searching “all day, every day” for over a month for an apartment. He said many were asking for money to be sent upfront to secure apartments but some quick research would show they were not legitimate sites.

When Walton, who already worked in Manhattan and commuted daily to an office in Midtown, finally took the plunge to follow his dream of living in the city, he was shocked at the asking prices for apartments.

“When I put in my price range of the $1000 that I wanted to spend for a room, I got zero results,” he said, laughing. “It was $1200-1500 for just a room, not an apartment.”

“I paid $600 for a studio in New Jersey so I thought $1000 was plenty,” he said. “I still think it’s a lot.”

He was  finally  able to negotiate close to that amount to sublet a bedroom in a 3-bedroom apartment.

Walton  emphasized that the process is not easy, nor is it ideal sharing with two people, especially since he has a cat that now has to stay confined to the bedroom at all times. But he still feels lucky to have found an affordable place in a decent neighborhood, close to the train station and now spends a lot of time just riding the subway to random stops in different boroughs, exploring and enjoying the city.

“The unlimited metrocard is dangerous,” he laughed.

Glenroy Anderson in his 2-bedroom Canarsie apartment that he shares with one roommate. Photo by Karen Camela Watson

On the other side of Brooklyn in suburban Canarsie, 45-year-old Glenroy Anderson shares his 2-bedroom apartment with another male roommate who needed a place to live.

“Canarsie is a peaceful neighborhood, very quiet, I like it here,” he said.

With an average commute of an-hour-and-a-half by bus and subway to midtown Manhattan, and limited available apartments, the rent is lower there than the rest of the borough.

Anderson admits that having a roommate does help with his living costs but said that was not the main reason he decided to share.

“I am a single guy,” he said. “It’s good having someone to talk to sometimes.”

The post Living in the city of dreams means some adults must seek roommates appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

As the student loan debate moves increasingly to center stage the idea of free tuition for all is gaining traction among college students. And not only at public institutions. Some private school attendees say they also want to be included in the ‘go to college for free’ club.

While Genie Jang, an undergraduate Education major at NYU Steinhardt School, does not know how this could be accomplished, she believes the public versus private school division is inherently classist and should be eliminated.

“Funding should be provided to all students regardless of the school they choose to attend, the way it is done in Europe,” she said. “Students do not choose the family they are born in so they shouldn’t have to choose where to attend based on income.” 

Rob Mousavi, a sophomore at the The New School in Manhattan, said free tuition was definitely the way to go as SUNY and CUNY colleges have done over the past two years. He does not believe private schools should be exempt from this. 

He said that even with scholarships and taking a year off to work and save for college he was still struggling to cover tuition and related expenses. He did not want to incur debt for school.

“Most people support finding an alternative to loans,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind paying additional taxes in the future so that the next generation could benefit from lowered tuition.”

On the national level, the push for student loan forgiveness and free tuition revolves primarily around public state colleges and universities where it is believed the need is greatest.

 In 2017 New York State launched the Excelsior Scholarship Program where in-state residents who complete at least 30 credits within each academic year toward an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree could attend The City University of New York within the 5 boroughs or a State University college anywhere in the state completely free. 

Currently at least 15 other states, including a pending proposal in the New Mexico state legislature, provide free tuition to students attending their public colleges and universities. None provide free tuition to students attending private colleges.

The NYU Medical School fully covers tuition for all its MD degree candidates through endowments, not tax-payers’ dollars.

MBA student, Ayush Khanna, attending a conference at NYU Stern School of Business on Friday afternoon, said it would be great if tuition could be free at both public and private schools, but was concerned about the debt that would cause the government to shoulder.

“There would be increased taxes,” he said. “I see implementation fees, implementation challenges.” 

He wasn’t convinced it was doable.

Exiting the Bobst Library at NYU, third year Computer Science major, Kellan Cupid, said tuition should definitely be free for everyone eventually, but should start with public colleges as is being done now. 

“The return on investment seems to be decreasing for student loans in general,” he said. “I’m seeing people paying off debt in their 40s and 50s. It is not always worth it.”

Cupid believes funding for private school students should start with partial government funding, some endowments like the medical school received, and then general fundraising from various other sources.

Haley Cunningham of the Tisch School at NYU says tuition at NYU is too high and free tuition should be considered for private colleges. Photo by Karen Camela Watson

Tisch School film and television senior, Haley Cunningham, shares similar views. 

“Tuition here is ridiculously high,” she said. “Tuition should be free for private schools also. It  could take years to pay off. It’s not always worth it…spending half your life paying off student loans.”

She didn’t have a proposal for funding free tuition for private schools as she was “not quite sure how the funding system works’’ and will have to do more research, but added that tuition definitely needs to be lowered with help from the government and donors.

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